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Reprinted  from  University  of  Colorado  Studies,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  4, 
Boulder,  Colo.,  August,  1906 


THE  COUNTY  BOUNDARIES^  OF  COLORADO 

By  Frederic  L.  Paxson 

The  early  history  of  the  state  of  Colorado  is  of  necessity  closely  con- 
nected with  that  of  the  territories  from  which  lands  were  taken  to  endow 
the  new  commonwealth.  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico 
were  all  levied  upon,  and  out  of  the  lands  thus  provided  was  erected, 
under  the  stimulus  of  the  discovery  of  gold  near  Pike's  Peak  in  1858, 
the  new  territory  bearing  the  name  of  Colorado,  by  the  act  of  February 
28,  1861.^ 

The  territorial  history  of  the  Colorado  lands  in  connection  with  Ne- 
braska, Utah,  and  New  Mexico  has  not  yet  been  made  accessible.  Kan- 
sas three  times  passed  laws  which  are  of  interest  in  the  history  of  the  new 
terrritory.^  In  the  year  1855  she  created  the  county  of  Arapahoe,  em- 
bracing all  of  her  territory  west  of  the  one  hundred  and  third  meridian, 
while  the  county  of  Washington,  south  of  thirty-eight  degrees  and  thirty 
minutes,  included  the  southeast  corner  of  Colorado.  Neither  of  these 
counties  was  ever  organized,  Arapahoe  being  attached  to  Marshall,  as  was 
Washington  to  Allen,  for  purposes  of  government,  and  both  of  them  being 
reshaped  before  their  local  settlement  justified  any  formal  organization. 
The  discovery  of  gold  in  Arapahoe  county  in  1858  brought  about  the 
repeal  of  the  act  of  1855,  and  the  substitution  for  the  two  counties  of 
Arapahoe  and  Washington,  within  Colorado  limits,  of  the  counties  of  Ore, 
Broderick,  Montana,  Arapahoe,  El  Paso,  and  Fremont,  all  lying  west  of 
the  one  hundred  and  third  meridian.  The  southern  end  of  the  single 
degree  east  of  this  meridian,  losing  even  its  nominal  Washington  county 
in  1859,  became  in  the  following  year  a  part  of  the  county  of  Peketon. 
And  in  this  condition  all  of  Kansas  west  of  the  twenty- fifth  meridian  from 
Washington  (approximately  the  one  hundred  and  second  from  Green- 
wich) was  cast  adrift  when  Kansas  was  admitted  into  the  union  on  Janu- 
ary 29, 1861. 

»  F.  L.  Paxson,  "The  Boundaries  of  Colorado,"  in  University  of  Colorado  Studies,  Vol.  II,  pp.  87-94 
'  H.  G.  Gill,  "The  Establishment  of  Counties  in  Kansas,"  in  Kansas  Historical  Society  Collections 
Vol.  VIII,  pp.  1-23,  with  sixteen  outline  maps. 

197 


f  i^l 


198 


UNIVERSITY   OF  COLORADO   STUDIES 


The  first  legislative  assembly  of  the  territory  of  Colorado  met  in  Den- 
ver in  the  autumn  of  1861  to  pass,  among  others,  a  law  dividing  the 
whole  territory  into  seventeen  counties.^  Of  these  original  counties,  six 
embraced  large  areas  of  plains  lands  of  the  eastern  slope — Weld,  Arapa- 
hoe, Douglas,  El  Paso,  Pueblo,  and  Huerfano.     Three  covered  the  whole 


31 


i 
I 
I 
I 

L/ 

I 

I 


Territory 


I 
I 

H 


3Z 


25 
—\4J 


NEBRASKA   TERRITORY 


^ — \ 


^ 


— !%>  h — -1 


^      I 
^  I 


3roc/er/cA 


Hew  Mexico 
Tbrritoky 


31 


ZS 


Map  I. — 1861 — Before  Admission  of  Kansas. 

unoccupied  western  slope — Summit,  Lake,  and  Conejos.^  Two,  Fre- 
mont and  Costilla,  divided  the  eastern  and  western  slopes  at  the  south 
while  six  mountain  counties  in  the  center  of  the  state — Larimer,  Boulder, 
Gilpin,  Clear  Creek,  Jefferson,  and  Park — have  until  this  day  remained 
in  their  original  limits  as  witnesses  to  the  wisdom  of  the  legislature  which 
brought  them  into  existence. ^ 

In  defining  the  boundaries  for  these  first  counties  the  legislature  made 
large  use  of  the  Hnes  of  the  United  States  survey,  which  had  begun  in  the 

»  Act  of  November  i,  1861  (First  Legislative  Assembly,  Session  Laws,    pp.  52-57). 

'  The  act  of  November  i,  1861,  created  a  county  of  Guadaloupe,  whose  name  was  changed  by  the  act 
of  November  7,  1861,  to  Conejos  {Sess.  Laws,  1861,  p.  14s). 

3  These  central  counties  contained  most  of  the  population  of  the  territory,  for  here  were  the  great  mining 
camps. 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES  OF  COLORADO 


199 


territory  a  few  months  before  the  act  was  passed.  The  eighth  guide  meri- 
dian, passing  through  the  town  of  Pueblo,  gives  the  location  to  ranges  in 
the  whole  state,  save  the  southwest  comer.  And  the  base  line  of  the 
fortieth  parallel  is  used  over  the  same  area.  In  the  southwest,  and  in 
later  years,  the  New  Mexico  principal  meridian  replaces  the  eighth  guide 
of  the  eastern  slope.  The  six  eastern  counties  were  all  defined  with 
reference  to   these  base   and  range  lines,  in  existence  or  projected. 


L  ar/mer 


iSummit 


We/c/ 


Arapahoe' 


Doaa/cfs 


El  Pc 


'atso 


Pueblo 


Arapahoe 
Cheyenne  Qe^erve^ 


Huerfano 


Map  II. — 1861 — First  Legislative  Assembly. 

The  central  counties  made  much  use  of  the  Snowy  Range,  which  the 
courts  later  determined  to  mean  the  continental  divide  when  not  further 
qualified  by  a  local  name,  as  Mosquito  or  Sangre  de  Christo  or  La  Plata 
range.''  The  western  counties,  beyond  the  region  of  accurate  survey 
or  actual  settlement,  were  open  to  confusion  in  the  case  of  the  Lake- 

'  This  ruling  was  made  in  a  sviit  in  which  Grand  county  endeavored  to  establish  the  Medidne  Bow 
range  as  its  eastern  bovmdary,  which  was  by  definition  the  "Snowy  Range"  (Grand  County  v.  Larimer  Co. 
Colorado  Supreme  Court  Reports,  Vol.  IX,  p.  268,  April  term,  1886).  In  the  following  year  the  legislatiu:e 
provided  that  disputed  county  boundaries  should  be  determined  and  surveyed  by  the  state  engineer  (Act  of 
April  4,  1887,  Sess.  Laws,  1887,  p.  388). 


200 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  STUDIES 


Conejos  line  which  was  defined  as  running  along  a  range,  the  La  Plata, 
which  was  misplaced  in  the  maps  used  by  the  legislature ;  but  this  mis- 
take was  corrected  before  the  opening  of  the  San  Juan  country  made  it 
a  matter  of  importance.^     It  is  worthy  of  note  that  four  of  the  eastern 


Map  III. — 1866 — Second  to  Sixth  Assemblies. 

counties  were  bounded  in  part  by  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe  reserva- 
tion, established  by  treaty  of  February  18, 186 1,  and  lasting  until  after 
the  treaty  of  Little  Arkansas,  of  October  14,  1865,  which  followed  the 
serious  plains  war  of  1864.'  In  no  other  instance  did  Colorado  allow  a 
reservation  to  interfere  with  the  extension  of  county  boundaries  over  its 
area.  The  Ute  reservations  in  the  west  were  always  covered  by  these  hnes. 
From  1864  until  the  arrival  of  the  railways  in  1870  Colorado  failed  to 
continue  in  the  rapid  growth  which  had  been  hoped  for  in  the  early  sixties. 

»  There  is  a  range  indicated  as  "La  Plata"  in  the  position  evidently  contempJated  in  1861,  in  "Map  No. 
4:  From  the  Coo-che-to-pa  Pass  to  the  Wahsatch  Mountains,"  in  Reports  of  Explorations  .  ...  for  a  Rail- 
road from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  (Washington,  1861),  Vol.  XI.  This  range  separates  the 
livers  San  Juan  and  Dolores,  along  which  divide  the  line  is  drawn  in  the  maps  accompanying  this  article. 

'  C.  C.  RoYCE,  "Indian  Land  Cessions  in  the  United  States,"  in  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology, 
Eighteenth  Report,  1896-97,  Part  2,  pp.  824,  838,  and  maps. 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES  OF  .COLORADO 


20I 


Her  mines  were  in  a  measure  discredited,  statehood  failed  in  spite  of 
the  exigencies  of  the  Repubhcan  party  in  Congress,  and  population  seems 
actually  to  have  fallen  away  during  these  years.  The  county  process 
indicates  this  stagnation  in  its  own  leisurely  development. 


Map  IV. — 1868 — Seventh  Assembly. 

With  the  exception  of  Saguache,  formed  out  of  that  part  of  Costilla 
north  of  La  Loma  del  Norte  and  Moscow  Creek,^  no  new  county  was 
created  on  the  western  slope  during  these  years.  Saguache  was  the  work 
of  the  sixth  legislative  assembly  sitting  at  Golden  in  1866-67.  I^s  north- 
west boundary  was  not  the  original  Costilla-Lake  line  of  186 1,  but  a  new 
line  erected  for  Costilla-Conejos  by  the  third  legislature  in  1864,  and  ex- 
tending from  the  top  of  Cochetopa  Pass  to  "the  mouth  of  the  canon  of 
the  Snowy  Range  from  whence  flows  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte,'"  the 
southern  point  being  later  determined  by  the  state  engineer  as  the  town 
of  Del  Norte,  situated  in  La  Loma  del  Norte.^ 

'  Sess.  Laws,  1866-67,  p.  S4.  act  of  December  29,  1866. 

'  Sess.  Laws,  1864,  p.  68,;   February  24,  1864. 

'  Cochetopa  Pass  was  in  1892  defined  by  the  state  engineer  as  sitiiated  in  S.  W.  Cor.,  Twp.  46  N.,  Range 
No.  4,  East,  of  New  Mexico  Principal  Meridian  (jColoradc  State  Engineer,  Sixth  Biennial  Report,  p.  49).  The 
'  ^moutb".of  the  Canon  was  located  in  this  same  report  (p.  44). 


202 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  STUDIES 


On  the  eastern  slope  the  comers  of  Fremont  county  were  straightened 
out  by  the  fifth  and  seventh  assemblies  of  1866  and  1868,^  while  the  county 
of  Las  Animas  made  its  appearance  in  the  former  year,  formed  from  that 
part  of  Huerfano  county  south  of  thirty-seven  degrees  and  thirty  minutes.' 


Summit 


WelJ 


A  ra /pcjhoe 


Do  ua  J  (7  s 


Oreenwood 


Bent 


La^    AnJmas 


Map  V. — 1870 — Eighth  Assembly. 

The  disappearance  of  the  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe  reservation,  and  the 
removal  of  the  Indians,  forced  a  revision  of  these  southeastern  lines  in 
1868,  with  the  result  that  the  seventh  legislature  restricted  Huerfano 
county  to  its  modern  irregular  bounds  and  divided  its  old  territory  be- 
tween Pueblo  and  Las  Animas,  its  neighbors  on  the  northeast  and  south- 
east.5 

'  An  act  of  March  ii,  1864  {JSess.  laws,  1864,  p.  69),  had  given  a  conditional  modification  to  Fremont, 
depending  upon  a  certain  Beaver  Creek.  This  act  was  repealed  by  the  act  of  February  6,  1866  {Sess.  La-wsi 
1866,  p.  47).  The  later  act  of  January  6,  1868  (Revised  Statutes,  1868,  p.  163),  substituted  the  range  of  moun- 
tains cast  of  the  Arkansas  River  for  the  original  northwestern  line,  the  new  line  crossing  the  Arkansas  three 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  South  Arkansas  in  order  to  connect  with  the  range  mentioned. 

•  February  9,  1866  (Sess.  Laws,  1866,  p.  49). 

»  Act  of  January  9,  i868  (Revised  Statutes,  1868,  p.  164).  These  Revised  Statutes  were  authorized  by 
the'sBventh  assembly  and  form  the  first  revision  of  Colorado  laws.. ... 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES   OF  COLORADO 


203 


The  advent  of  the  railway  in  Colorado  left  its  necessary  imprint  upon 
county  organization.  The  Denver  Pacific,  connecting  Denver  and  Chey- 
enne, and  the  Kansas  Pacific,  otherwise  known  as  the  Eastern  Division  of 
the  Union  Pacific,  reaching  the  territorial  capital  from  the  east,  both  came 
into  operation  in  the  summer  of  1870,     Greenwood  and  Bent  counties 


Map  VI. — 1874 — ^Ninth  and  Tenth  Assemblies. 

had  preceded  the  Kansas  Pacific  by  some  months,^  while  the  activity 
around  the  county  seat  of  the  former.  Kit  Carson,  caused  by  the  heavy 
Santa  F^  trade  springing  from  the  railway  at  that  point,*  gave  a  consider- 
able activity  to  speculation  in  territorial  lands.  The  county  of  Elbert, 
south  of  Arapahoe,  came  with  the  tenth  legislature  in  1874  at  the  expense 
of  Douglas  and  Greenwood,^  while  the  latter  gave  to  Bent  what  Elbert 
did  not  need  and  itself  disappeared  from  the  map.'*    In  this  condition, 

■  Act  of  February  ii,  1870  {Sess.  Laws,  1870,  p.  53). 

"  The  Arkansas  Valley  Railroad  was  constructed  by  Kansas  Pacific  interests  to  connect  Kit  Carson  and 
Pueblo.  It  was  built  as  far  as  La  Junta,  further  extension  being  unnecessary  since  the  Sante  F6  had  already 
reached  Pueblo  by  La  Junta.  The  Arkansas  Valley  was  never  a  success,  closed  down  in  1877,  was  sold  under 
foreclosure  in  1878,  and  is  today  abandoned.     (Poor,  Railway  Manual,  1878,  p.  894.) 

3  Act  of  February  2,  1874  (JSess.  Laws,  1874,  p.  69). 

*  Act  of  February  6,  1874  {.Sess.  Laws,  1874,  p.  61).  The  Ninth  Census,  1S70,  had  given  to  Greenwood 
a  population  of  5x0  (Vol.  I,  Population,  p.  16). 


204 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  STUDIES 


save  for  the  county  of  Custer,  made  in  1877,'  the  eastern  slope  remained 
through  the  rest  of  the  seventies  and  through  the  eighties  to  1887. 

On  the  western  slope  of  Colorado  the  seventies  show  a  greater  county 
activity  than  on  the  eastern.  The  early  counties  beyond  the  range  had 
lost  much  of  their  importance  from  the  fact  that  the  Ute  reservation  cov- 
ered most  of  the  useful  lands.  But  the  Indians  receded  before  the  pros- 
pecter  during  this  decade,^  allowing  the  creation  of  many  new  counties  in 
place  of  the  original  three — Summit,  Lake,  and  Conejos. 


lar/m^r 


]A/elc/ 


A  rap^f  ho£' 


£/herr 


denr 


la^    An/ mas 


] 


Map  VII — 1876 — Eleventh  Territorial  Assembly. 


Saguache  county  was  the  first  to  change  in  the  early  seventies,  receiving 
in  1872  a  new  northern  line  in  the  latitude  of  Poncha  Pass,  and  a  new 

'Act  of  March  9,  1877  {General  Laws,  1877,  p.  211).  The  first  general  assembly  of  the  new  state  of 
Colorado  published  no  Session  Laws,  but  embodied  the  statutes  of  1877  in  a  code  of  General  Laws. 

'  The  original  reserve,  west  of  107°  and  south  of  fifteen  miles  north  of  40°,  was  based  on  a  treaty  March 
2,  1868.  The  Utes  ceded  the  San  Juan  rectangle  out  of  this  by  a  treaty  of  September,  13,  1873,  and  the 
remaining  portion,  save  for  the  fifteen  mile  strip  of  the  Southern  Ute  reserve,  by  an  agreement  of  March  6, 
1880.  (ROYCE,  Indian  [Land  Cessions,  pp.  848,  864,  874,  899,  904,  908;  House  Executive  Document  66 
Forty-fifth  Congress,  Second  Session.} 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES  OF  COLORADO  205 

western  line  along  the  Ute  reserve  in  one  hundred  and  seven  degrees.* 
The  next  legislature,  the  tenth  in  1874,  was  able  to  take  advantage  of  the 
cession  by  the  Utes  of  their  San  Juan  lands,  and  to  create  three  southwest- 
ern counties  at  the  expense  of  Conejos  and  Lake.  The  large  county  of 
La  Plata  received  on  the  east  a  meridian  six  miles  west  of  the  mouth  of 
Lost  Trail  Creek  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  on  the  north  a  parallel  ten  miles 
north  of  the  thirty-eighth  parallel,^  both  of  which  boundaries  were  shortly 
to  give  way  to  more  reasonable  lines  along  the  obvious  summits.  Conejos 
was  in  the  same  year  forced  back  of  the  ninth  correction  line  and  the  first 
guide  meridian  east  of  the  New  Mexico  principal  meridian,  while  the 
lands  thus  surrendered  were  divided  by  the  New  Mexico  meridian  itself 
into  Hinsdale  and  Rio  Grande.  The  county  of  Grand  was  erected 
by  the  same  tenth  assembly  out  of  that  part  of  the  huge  Summit 
north  of  the  Ute  reserve  and  the  line  between  townships  Nos.  i  and  2 
south.3 

The  eleventh  legislature,  1876,  the  last  of  the  territorial  series,  added 
San  Juan  to  the  southwestern  group,  taking  from  La  Plata  for  the  purpose 
its  lands  north  of  nine  miles  south  of  the  tenth  correction  line,  and  erecting 
a  mountain  line  for  most  of  San  Juan's  eastern  boundary. '»  The  impos- 
sibility of  the  1861  Conejos-Lake  line  was  by  this  time  clearly  seen  in  that 
the  La  Plata  range  not  only  did  not  cross  the  western  boundary  of  the 
territory,  but  did  not  even  connect  with  the  continental  divide  at  the 
source  of  the  Rio  Grande,  which  the  statute  called  upon  it  to  do.  With 
this  legislature  the  territorial  period  ended,  twenty-six  of  the  counties  of 
Colorado  being  in  existence.  ^ 

'  Act  of  February  g,  1872  (Sess.  Laws,  1872,  p.  81).  The  state  engineer,  under  act  of  April  4,  1887, 
has  determined  the  summit  of  Poncha  Pass  to  be  "Intersection  Peak"  as  indicated  on  Sheet  VII  of  F.  V. 
Hayden,  Atlas  oj  Colorado  (Washington,  1881).  (Colorado  Stale  Engineer,  Fourth  Biennial  Report,  Part  I, 
p.  116.)  The  court  of  appeals  sustained  his  ruling  in  September,  1892  (Gunnison  Co.  v.  Saguache  Co.  Colo- 
rado Court  of  Appeals  Reports,  Vol.  II,  p.  412). 

» Act  of  February  10,  1874  (Sess.  Laws,  1874,  p.  66).  A  single  act  defined  the  boundaries  of  the  three 
counties,  and  in  a  later  section  (No.  13)  established  the  tenth  correction  Une  as  a  new  boundary  between  Cos- 
tilla and  Saguache. 

3  Act  of  February  2,  1874,  (Sess.  Laws  1874,  p.  71).  The  moimtain  boundary  of  the  new  Grand  left 
the  Snowy  Range  where  it  throws  off  a  spur  between  the  Williams'  Fork  and  Blue  Rivers,  on  the  west  boundary 
of  Clear  Creek,  and  follows  the  spur  range  to  the  township  line  mentioned. 

■♦  Act  of  January  31,  1876  (Sess.  Laws,  1876,  p.  58). 

5  The  writer  is  indebted  to  one  of  his  graduate  students,  Mr.  Frederick  Eugene  Hagen,  for  assistance 
in  the  preliminary  survey  of  the  territorial  period.  He  has,  however,  based  all  his  conclusions  upon  a  personal 
examination  of  the  statutes  involved. 


2o6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  STUDIES 


The  first  general  assembly  of  the  new  state,  meeting  in  1877,  took  up 
the  process  of  subdividing  the  west  so  vigorously  that  three  new  counties 
made  their  appearance  in  this  year,  San  Juan,  which  had  come  into 
existence  only  the  year  before,  was  cut  down  until  it  reached  its  present 
location  and  boundary,  while  so  much  of  the  original  territory  as  lay  west 


L  ar/mer 


We/of 


A  rapahcpe 


E/herf- 


dent 


Map  VIII. — 1877 — First  General  Assembly. 

of  an  irregular  mountain  line  became  the  new  county  of  Ouray.  ^  Lake 
county  was  confined  to  the  east  of  the  continental  divide  or  Snowy  Range, 
while  its  discarded  portion  received  the  name  of  Gunnison."  Routt 
county  was  cut  off  from  Grand  with  an  eastern  boundary  that  was  at  a 
later  day  to  cause  litigation  with  both  its  mother-county  and  Larimer.' 

»iAct  of  January  i8,  1877  {General  Laws,  1877,  p.  aoy). 

'  Act  of  March  9,  1877  {General  Laws,  1877,  p.  ais). 

3  The  western  boundary  of  Larimer  was  determined  by  the  supreme  court  in  Grand  Co.  v.  Larimer  Co* 
(IX  Colorado,  p.  268).  Routt  county  received  a  somewhat  uncertain  boundary  in  the  act  of  January  29, 1877 
(General  Laws,  1877,  p.  209).  In  one  section  it  was  to  include  that  part  of  Grand  lying  west  of  a  defined  line, 
while  the  defined  line,  starting  from  the  intersection  of  south  line  of  Grand  and  the  Gore  Range,  and  running 
north  to  the  Wyoming  territorial  line,  ran,  through  half  its  length,  through  North  Park  and  Larimer  county. 
Thus  a  technical  contention  based  upon  the  more  definite  boundary  statement  might  have  included  in  Routt 
a  part  of  Larimer.  The  identity  of  Gore  Range  caused  litigation  between  Routt  and  Grand  over  a  twelve- 
mile  strip.    The  state  engineer,  J.  S.  Green,  identified  the  point  of  intersection  at  Yarmany  Peak,  his  ruling 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES  OF  COLORADO 


207 


In  1879  the  second  state  assembly  gave  to  Saguache,  already  a  much- 
bounded  county,  a  new  Hne  on  its  south,  and  at  the  same  time  a  ground  for 
future  litigation.'    To  the  adjoining  county  of  Lake,  between  Snowy 


We/d 


Ara;pahcpe 


O^ray 


la  P/afa 


E/lpert 


dent 


Co/7ejo^ 


An /mas 


Map  IX. — 1879 — Second  General  Assembly. 

jeing  overthrown  and  the  point  being  placed  twelve  miles  farther  west  by  the  district  court  of  Grand  upon 
ippeal  of  Gra^d.  The  court  of  Appeals,  in  1894,  reversed  the  decision  of  the  court  below,  and  remanded  the 
ase  (IV  Colorado  Court  of  Appeals,  p.  306).  Subsequently  the  county  attorneys  of  Grand  and  Routt  agreed 
to  nin  the  line  from  the  southwest  comer  of  township  No.  i,  range  82,  west. 

» An  adjudication  of  the  common  boundaries  of  Saguache,  Hinsdale,  and  Rio  Grande  occurred  after 
the  beginning  of  the  mining  boom  at  Creede  and  before  the  creation  of  Mineral  county  in  1893.  In  order 
to  determine  the  location  of  certain  of  the  new  camps,  appeal  was  jointly  made  by  the  counties  to  the  state 
engineer,  J.  B.  Maxwell,  under  the  act  of  1887.  Maxwell  sat  at  Creede  in  March,  1892,  and  handed  down 
a  decision  defming  the  southern  boundary  of  Saguache  as  running  from  the  intersection  of  the  tenth  correction 
line  north  with  the  first  guide  meridian  east  of  the  New  Mexico  principal  meridian,  west  to  an  intersection 
with  a  line  nmning  northwesterly  from  Del  Norte  to  Cochetopa  Pass,  and  northwesterly  to  said  pass;  thence 
southwesterly  along  the  continental  divide  to  the  one  hundred  and  seventh  meridian.  (.Colorado  State 
Engineer,  Sixth  Biennial  Report,  pp.  42-50.)  This  decision  of  the  state  engineer  was  later  contested  by 
Mineral  county,  and  the  district  court  of  Chaffee  reversed  the  decision  on  the  groimd  that  the  procedure  of  the 
state  engineer  was  illegal,  his  duty  being  to  survey  a  line,  not  merely  to  adjudicate  it.  The  court  also  took 
evidence  and  established  the  Rio  Grande  River,  west  of  the  New  Mexico  meridian,  as  the  southern  hne  of 
Saguache,  in  place  of  the  continental  divide.  Upon  the  appeal  of  Hinsdale,  this  decision  was  reversed  by  the 
court  of  appeals  at  its  April  term,  1897  (Colorado  Court  of  Appeals  Reports,  Vol.  IX,  p.  368).  A  year  later, 
the  court  of  appeals  was  itself  reversed  by  the  supreme  court,  upon  the  appeal  of  Mineral  (Colorado  Supreme 
Court  Reports,  Vol.  XXV,  p.  95).    In  the  light  of  these  decisions,  the  Saguache-Hinsdale  line  must  be  inter; 


2o8 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO   STUDIES 


£oatf 


ar/mer 


^umm/ 1 


Ouray 


Pc^/or^j 


la  PJafa 


We/c^ 


A  ra p  cf  h  o  ^ 


Elherf 


Dent 


Ca/yg'jff^ 


Las    An/ma's 


Map  X. — 1881— Third  General  Assembly. 

and  Mosquito  Ranges,  its  attention  was  called  by  the  discovery  of  great 
silver  lodes  near  the  old  town  of  Oro.  At  first  it  divided  the  county,  giv- 
ing its  north  end,  north  of  five  miles  south  of  the  first  correction  line,  the 
descriptive  name  of  Carbonate/     But  before  the  session  ended,  Car- 

preted  as  nrnning  in  part  along  the  Rio  Grande,  although  the  writer  has  been  unable  to  find  any  statutory 
authority  for  the  ruling  of  the  ChaSee  county  court,  and  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  a  better  interpretation  of 
the  statute  would  have  been  reached  had  the  court  been  able  to  pass  the  matter  back  to  the  state  engineer  for 
lawful  action,  rather  than  to  decide  the  location  of  the  line  itself. 

The  Saguache-Rio  Grande  line  is  likewise  in  some  doubt.  When  Rio  Grande  was  erected  in  1874  its 
northern  line  was  the  old  southern  line  of  Saguache,  ptassing  through  Del  Norte  and  Cochetopa  Pass.  In  an 
act  of  February  8,  1879,  Rio  Grande  was  increased  by  all  of  Saguache  lying  south  of  the  tenth  correction 
line,  from  its  intersection  with  the  first  guide  meridian  east,  west  thirty  miles,  north  six  miles,  and  west  to  the 
Hinsdale  Une  (5ew.  laws,  1879,  p.48).  It  has  been  commonly  held  that  this  act  transferred  to  Saguache  all 
of  Rio  Grande  lying  north  of  the  described  line,  and  in  this  spirit  the  best  maps  are  commonly  drawn.  But 
the  text  of  the  act  contains  no  reference  whatever  to  an  increase  of  Saguache.  The  maps  here  presented 
accept  the  current  assumption  that  such  was  the  intent  of  the  legislature  of  1879,  and  that  the  statute  was 
merely  defective  in  phrase.  But  there  is  much  reason  to  beUeve  that  a  technical  interpretation  of  the  law  would 
restore  to  Rio  Grande  its  Cochetopa  triangle.  Such  was  the  opinion  of  Maxwell  in  1892,  and  the  writer  accepts 
his  argument  as  conclusive.  The  Chaffee  coimty  court  threw  out  his  tuhng  because  of  the  manner  in  which 
it  had  been  made,  not  on  any  avowed  ground  of  an  incorrect,interpretation  of  law  (Sixth  Biennial  Report,  p.  47). 

"  Act  of  February  8,  1879  (Sess.  Laws,  1879,  p.  47).  The  "Camp  of  the  Carbonates,"  as  Leadville  was 
popularly  known,  brought  Colorado  into  the  public  eye  in  1878  and  1879.  Some  of  the  contemporary  bibliog- 
raphy may  be  found  in  F.  L.  Paxson,  "Preliminary  Bibliography  of  Colorado  History,"  in  University  of  Col- 
orado Studies,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  19-24 


COUNTY   BOUNDARIES   OF  COLORADO 


209 


bonate  had  been  discarded  for  the  old  name  of  Lake,  while  the  southern 
end  received  the  new  name  of  Chaffee.^ 

Two  years  after  the  Leadville  boom  of  1879,  the  third  assembly 
divided  the  county  of  Ouray,  to  erect  that  of  Dolores,  and  cut  ofiF  the 
northeastern  corner  of  Gunnison  to  receive  the  name  of  Governor  Pitkin." 
But  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  the  fourth  assembly,  in  1883,  that  the  final 


Arafpahc?^ 


£/t'£'r-f 


3^r7f 


Lets  Animas 


Map  XI. — 1883 — Fourth  General  Assembly. 

removal  of  the  last  of  the  Uncompahgre  Utes  made  it  possible  to  reduce 
the  counties  of  the  west  to  reasonable  dimensions.  In  this  year,  1883, 
Summit  was  restricted  to  its  present  limits,  while  out  of  its  western  end 
were  erected  Eagle  and  Garfield.^     Gunnison  was  likewise  reduced  to  its 

■  Act  of  February  lo,  1879  {Sess.  Laws,  1879.  p.  48). 

'  Dolores  was  erected  by  art  of  February  19,  1881,  and  Pitkin  by  act  of  February  23  (Sess.  Laws,  i88x, 
pp.  92,  89).  The  jv^int  line  of  Garfield,  Pitkin,  and  Mesa  was  rim  by  the  state  engineer  in  1890  (Fifth  Bien- 
nial Report,  Part  I,  p.  14.). 

3  Garfield,  February  10;  Eagle,  February  11;  (Sess.  Laws,  1883,  PP-  130.  127).  The  Eagle-Summit 
boundary  was  defined,  in  its  northern  end,  as  the  divide  between  the  Piney  and  Blue  Rivers.  A  later  and  better 
geographical  knowledge  showed  that  two  divides  exist  between  these  rivers,  being  themselves  separated 
by  the  Sheephom  Creek  and  valley.  The  state  engineer,  John  E.  Field,  surveyed  the  line  in  1897  and  accepted 
the  eastern  divide  as  the  statutory  Une,  throwing  the  Sheephom  valley  into  Eagle  county  (Ninth  Biennial 
Report,  p.  30).  The  line  between  Garfield  and  Eagle  had  been  run  by  the  same  official  in  1893  (Seventh  Bien- 
nial Report,  p.  331). 


2IO  UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO  STUDIES 

present  dimensions,  Mesa,  Delta,  and  Montrose  being  created  wholly,  and 
Uncompahgre  in  part,  at  its  expense.^  The  meridian  of  one  hundred 
and  seven  degrees,  thirty  minutes,  became  the  western  line  of  the  reduced 
county,  while  the  Delta-Mesa  line  followed  the  edge  of  the  Grand  Mesa  in 
part.  A  new  county  of  Uncompahgre  was  created  by  this  assembly,  com- 
prising all  of  the  valley  of  the  Uncompahgre  River  and  its  tributaries  south 
of  thirty-eight  degrees  and  twenty  minutes,  and  north  of  the  San  Juan 
county  line.  Before  the  session  ended  the  name  of  San  Miguel  had  been 
applied  to  the  old  county  of  Ouray,  while  the  name  Ouray  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  county  of  Uncompahgre. " 

The  history  of  the  western  slope  since  1883  is  quickly  told.  Archuleta 
came  with  the  fifth  assembly  in  1885,  to  reduce  Conejos  to  its  present 
limits  west  of  the  continental  divide.^  In  1889  the  seventh  assembly 
divided  La  Plata  along  the  mountain  range  of  the  same  name,  and 
g^ve  the  name  Montezuma  to  its  western  end,  in  honor,  perhaps,  of  its 
prehistoric  ruins.'*  It  ran  also  an  irregular  line  along  the  lines  of  the 
United  States  survey  in  creating  Rio  Blanco  in  the  northern  part  of 
Garfield,  s  The  ninth  assembly,  four  years  later,  separated  Rio  Grande 
and  Hinsdale  counties  by  the  new  county  of  Mineral,  four  ranges 
wide  and  running  from  the  ninth  correction  line  to  the  continental 
divide.^ 

During  the  eighties  Colorado  developed  as  an  agricultural  state  more 
rapidly  than  before.  Irrigation  had  ceased  to  be  an  experiment;  while 
the  assertion  by  the  state  of  its  rights  to  control  its  waters,  together  with 
the  supervision  of  the  state  engineer  over  hydraulic  conditions,  founded 

'  Mesa,  February  14;  Delta,  February  ii;  Montrose,  February  11;  Uncompaghre,  February  27  (Sess. 
Laws,  1&83,  pp.  133,  124,  136,  139). 

'  Uncompaghre  was  created  by  act  of  February  27,  1883,  and  had  its  name  changed  to  Ouray,  March  a, 
1883  {Sess.  Laws,  1883,  p.  139).  The  dividing  line  between  the  new  Ouray  and  San  Juan  had  been  defined 
by  act  of  January  18,  1877  (General  Laws,  1877,  p.  207).  It  depends  upon  the  location  of  a  certain  Minora' 
Creek  which  empties  into  the  Uncompaghre  River,  and  is  of  great  importance  because  it  traverses  a  rich  min- 
eral district.  The  line  is  now  (1906)  in  the  hands  of  the  state  engineer,  whose  chief  difficulty  is  to  identify 
Mineral  Creek.  The  northern  line  of  38°  20',  calling  for  an  astronomical  location,  is  also  in  the  hands  of  the 
state  engineer. 

J  Act  of  April  14,  i88s  {Sess.  Laws,  1885,  p.  40). 

♦  Act  of  April  16,  1889  {Sess.  Laws,  1889,  p.  262). 

s  Act  of  March  15,  1889  {Sess.  Laws,  1889,  p.  325).  The  act  is  carelessly  worded  in  its  definition  of 
the  survey  lines,  but  its  intent  can  be  easily  seen. 

*  Act  of  March  27,  1893  {Sess.  Laws,  1893,  p.  94).  This  act  was  carelessly  phrased.  A  later  act  of  April 
24,  189s,  was  necessary  to  bring  its  wording  into  harmony  with  its  intent  {Sess.  Laws,  1895,  p.  205). 


COUNTY   BOUNDARIES  OF  COLORADO 


211 


irrigation  rights  upon  bases  more  equitable  than  had  been  known  before/ 
The  resulting  expansion  in  the  Platte  and  Arkansas  valleys  started  anew 
the  county  growth  on  the  east  slope  that  had  paused  after  the  erection  of 
Custer  in  1877. 


J    We/af 


Loi^ar? 


y/ajh/n^ton 


Ara p(yi  hoe 


la  P/afa 


E/hert 


dent 


La^    An/mas 


Map  XII.— 1887— Fifth  and  Sixth  Assemblies. 

The  county  of  Weld,  one  of  the  original  seventeen  of  1861,  had 
complete  control  of  the  waters  of  the  lower  Platte  until  1887.  An 
attempt  to  create  a  county  of  Platte  out  of  its  eastern  end  had  been  made 
in  1872,  but  had  failed  to  secure  the  required  approval  at  the  polls. ^ 
And  thus  Weld  remained  unbroken  until  the  sixth  assembly  of  1887 

»  The  act  of  February  19,  1879,  inaugurated  the  policy  of  control  of  irrigable  streams  by  the  state,  by 
erecting  ten  irrigation  districts  with  a  water  commissioner  for  each.  Two  years  later,  March  s,  1881,  the 
administration  of  the  system  was  centralized  by  the  establishment  of  the  office  of  state  engineer  to  super- 
vise the  work  of  the  local  comniissioners.  Twelve  Biennial  Reports  have  been  pubhshed  by  the  state  engineer, 
the  last  being  for  1904.  Since  the  act  of  April  4,  1887,  this  official  has  had  the  duty  of  adjudicating  and  sur- 
veying disputed  boundaries  {Sess.  Laws,  1879,  p.  94;  1881,  p.  119;  1887,  p.  288). 

»  The  erection  of  Platte  county  was  authorized,  subject  to  popular  vote,  February  9,  1872  {Sess.  Laws, 
1872,  p.  80).  This  statute  was  repealed  February  9,  1874  {Sess.  Laws,  1874,  P-  82).  The  courts  have  decided 
that  such  a  popular  vote  is  not  a  constitutional  prerequisite  to  the  formation  of  a  new  county,  although  it  is 
necessary  in  cases  of  transfer  of  land  from  one  existing  county  to  another  {Frost  v.  Pfeiffer,  XXVI  Colorado 
3  38).  There  is  a  general  statute  of  April  4,  1887,  for  alteration  of  county  tines  in  certain  cases  by  mutual 
consent  of  adjacent  counties  {Sess.  Laws,  1887,  p.  71.) 


212 


UNIVERSITY   OF  COLORADO   STUDIES 


Map  XIII. — 1889 — Seventh  General  Assembly. 

erected  two  counties  of  Logan  and  Washington,  and  began  the  process 
of  the  final  subdivision  of  the  east.* 

The  seventh  assembly,  in  1889,  created  eleven  counties  on  the  east- 
ern border  of  the  state. ^  Logan  parted  with  its  eastern  end  to  endow 
Sedgwick  and  Phillips;  Yuma  was  erected  in  the  eastern  end  of  Wash- 
ington ;  while  Weld  gave  up,  as  its  last  contribution,  the  area  of  Morgan. 
South  of  Arapahoe,  which  came  through  the  assembly  untouched, 
perhaps  because  its  eastern  end  contained  no  railways  to  develop  the 
country  or  to  pay  taxes  for  new  counties,  Elbert  and  Bent  suffered 
most  in  the  division.  From  Elbert  came  Kit  Carson  and  a  part  of 
Cheyenne  on  the  Kansas  line,  with  the  greater  part  of  Lincoln;  while 

■  Washington,  February  9;  Logan,  February  25,  1887  {Sess.  Laws,  1887,  pp.  251,  247). 

•  A  study  of  this  county  expansion  in  connection  with  the  railway  development  of  the  eighties  shows  the 
intimate  relation  existing  between  railway  transportation  and  frontier  development.  A  state  commissioner 
of  raih-oads  was  created  in  1885  {Sess.  Laws,  1885,  p.  307).  Two  reports  were  published  by  this  official  in 
1885  and  1892,  and  finally  the  office  was  abolished  over  the  veto  of  Governor  Waite  in  1893  (Sess.  Laws,  1893, 
p.  40s;  Davis  H.  Waite,  Biennial  Message  .  ...  to  the  Tenth  General  Assembly  IDenver,  i89sl>  P-  43)-  The 
Eleventh  Census.  Report  on  Transportation  Business,  Part  I,  pp.  4,  43,  states  that  raibroad  mileage  in  Colorado 
encreased  from  1,385  in  1880  to  4,176  in  1890. 


COUNTY  BOUNDARIES   OF  COLORADO 


213 


Bent  not  only  contributed  to  complete  Lincoln  and  Cheyenne,  but  parted 
with  three  complete  counties  in  Kiowa,  Prowers,  and  Otero.  Las 
Animas  lost  Baca  in  this  same  destruction,  giving  up  the  one  county 
of  the  eastern  border  with  no  railway  in  its  endowment.* 


Loci  an 


Sedtjrikk 


Phillips 


Yuma 


Kit  Carbon 


Cheyer7r?e 


K  /  o  yv  a 


Las  Animas 


«5^ 


S^aca 


Map  XIV.— 1899— Eighth  to  Twelfth  Assemblies. 

There  was  little  left  to  be  done  on  the  eastern  slope  after  the  com- 
prehensive accomplishments  of  the  seventh  assembly.  Ten  years 
later,  in  1899,  the  twelfth  assembly  took  the  next  step  in  response  to 
the  demands  of  the  new  Cripple  Creek  camp,  creating  Teller  county 
at  the  expense  of  El  Paso  and  Fremont.' 

'  Morgan,  February  19,  1889  (5eM.  Laws,  1889,  P-  267);  Yuma,  March  15  (p.  476);  Cheyenne,  March 
25  (p.  56);  Otero,  March  25  (p.  281);  PhilHps,  March  27  (p.  288);  Sedgwick,  April  9,(p.  340);  Prowers,  April 
II  (p.  294);  Kiowa,  April  n  (p.  222);  Kit  Carson,  April  11  (p  225);  Lincok,  April  11  (p.  234);  Baca,  April 
16  (p.  26). 

'  Act  of  March  23,  1899  {,Stss.  Laws,  1899.  P-  359).  The  difficulties  in  administering  a  county  contain- 
ng,  as  in  the  case  of  El  Paso,  two  large  centers  of  population,  Colorado  Springs  and  Cripple  Creek,  were  made 
clear  during  the  great  strike  of  1893-94  (B.  M.  Rastal,  "The  Cripple  Creek  Strike  of  1893,"  \nColorado  College 
Studies,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-48).  The  case  of  Frost  v.  Pfeiffer,  dted  above,  was  decided  in  connection  with  the 
creation  of  this  county  (XXVI  Colorado,  338).  The  western  line  of  TeUer  had  been  run,  on  appeal  of 
El  Paso  and  Park,  in  1893  (.Colorado  State  Engineer,  Seventh  Biennial  Report,  p.  aai. 


214 


UNIVERSITY  OF  COLORADO   STUDIES 


The  thirteenth  assembly  was  induced  by  the  needs  of  the  city  of 
Denver  to  prepare  a  constitutional  amendment  providing  a  special 
type  of  government  for  counties  of  more  than  seventy  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, and  a  statute  erecting  the  city  and  county  of  Denver  as  coterminous 


Map  XV. — 1901 — Thirteenth  Assembly. 


divisions.^  It  provided  also  that  upon  the  acceptance  of  this  amend- 
ment on  November  4,  1902,  the  remainder  of  Arapahoe  county  should 
become  Adams  and  South  Arapahoe.^  Two  years  later  the  fourteenth 
assembly  cut  away  from  the  cumbersome  Adams  county,  and  gave 
vigor  to  the  notion  of  the  necessity  of  the  railroad  to  county  life 
by  adding  portions  of  the  discarded  Adams  to  Washington  and 
Yuma.  3 

'  Act  of  March  18,  1901   (Sess.  Laws,  1901,  p.  97;   David  A.  Mills,  Legislative  Manual,  Stale  of 
Colorado,  1903,  p.  267). 

'  Acts  of  April  IS,  1901  (,Sess.  Laws,  1901,  pp.  133,  138). 
3  Acts  of  April  10,  .1903  (Sess.  Laws,  1903,  pp.  169,  173), 


COUNTY   BOUNDARIES   OF   COLORADO 


215 


The  fifteenth  assembly,  in  1905,  made  no  territorial  changes,  ignor- 
ing some  demand  for  a  new  county  in  North  Park  at  the  expense  of 
Larimer,  and  devoting  itself  to  the  administrative  problems  arising 
from  the  strikes  of  the  preceding  year. 


j      1$  O  u  t  t       l^Lari 


Lcpqan 


Phillip 


Map  XVI. — 1903 — Fourteenth  Assembly. 


Lithomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gay  lord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1308 


/. 


?l  ->? 


m 


